Systems and methods for communication with remote management systems

ABSTRACT

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure describe systems and methods for communication between wireless power transmission systems and remote management systems. The described systems include one or more wireless power transmitters, one or more wireless power receivers and one or more electronic devices. Electronic devices may be able to communicate with wireless power transmitters and wireless power receivers using suitable communications channels. The disclosed systems are capable of performing system assessments and check-ups, periodically generating status reports and sending the status reports to a remote management system.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present disclosure is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/891,399 entitled Receivers For Wireless Power Transmission, filed May10, 2013, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/891,430 entitledMethodology For Pocket-Forming, filed May 10, 2013, and U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/891,445 entitled Transmitters For Wireless PowerTransmission, filed May 10, 2013, each of which are incorporated byreference in their entirety herein.

BACKGROUND

Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure relates in general to wireless power transmissionsystems, and more specifically to systems and methods for establishingcommunications with remote management systems.

Background Information

Electronic devices such as laptop computers, smartphones, portablegaming devices and tablets, amongst others, may require power forperforming their intended functions. This may require having to chargeelectronic equipment at least once a day, or in high-demand electronicdevices more than once a day. Such an activity may be tedious and mayrepresent a burden to users. For example, a user may be required tocarry chargers in case his electronic equipment is lacking power. Inaddition, users have to find available power sources to connect to.Additionally, users may be required to plugin to a wall or other powersupply to be able to charge his or her electronic device. However, suchan activity may in some cases render electronic devices inoperableduring charging.

For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for simple, reliable and userfriendly wireless power transmission systems where electronic devicesmay be powered without requiring extra chargers or plugs, and where themobility and portability of electronic devices may not be compromised.

SUMMARY

Various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure describe systemsand methods for communication between wireless power transmissionsystems and remote management systems. The disclosed systems may includepower transmitters, power receivers, electronic devices and suitableremote system managers.

Power transmitters may be utilized for wireless power transmission usingsuitable techniques such as pocket-forming. Transmitters may be employedfor sending Radio frequency (RF) signals to power receivers. Powerreceivers may be capable of converting RF signals into suitableelectricity for powering and charging a plurality of electric devices.Wireless power transmission may allow powering and charging a pluralityof electrical devices without wires.

The disclosed wireless power transmission systems may periodicallyperform system checkups to generate past, present and future statusreports.

According to some embodiments, past status reports may include detailssuch as the amount of power delivered to each of the electronic devicesin the system during a certain time period, the amount of energy thatwas transferred to a group of electronic devices associated with a user,the amount of time an electronic device has been associated to awireless power transmitter, pairing records, activities within thesystem, any action or event of any wireless power device in the system,errors, faults, and configuration problems, among others. Past systemstatus data may also include power schedules, names, customer sign-innames, authorization and authentication credentials, encryptedinformation, areas, details for running the system, and any othersuitable system or user-related information.

According to some embodiments, present status report may include anypresent failure, error or abnormal function of any system or subsystemcomponents; a list of presently online end-users and devices, currentsystem configuration and power schedules, amongst others.

According to some embodiments, future status reports may includeforecasts based on the evaluation of past and present system statusreports. For example, the system may be able to extrapolate possibleimpending sub-system component failure based on logged past behavior ofsub-system components. The system may also be able to evaluate the powerschedules and determine if any device will be out of energy according tohistorical power consumption and current power schedule.

In some embodiments, the system may further evaluate the systemconfiguration to check if any configuration set by an operator orend-user may cause an unwanted system behavior.

According to some embodiments, the disclosed systems may be capable ofevaluating if the generation of an alert is needed. If an alert isneeded, the alert may be generated and sent. Depending of the type ofproblem detected, the alerts may be sent to the end-users, the system'sowner, the service provider or any suitable combination.

According to some embodiments, using a suitable TCP/IP connection thewireless power systems may be able to send reports to a remote systemmanager for further evaluation. In some embodiments, the wireless powersystem may receive feedback from the remote system manager.

According to some embodiments, the wireless power transmitters within asystem may be capable of establishing a suitable TCP/IP connection witha remote management system to validate or authenticate end-usercredentials.

Numerous other aspects, features and benefits of the present disclosuremay be made apparent from the following detailed description takentogether with the drawings provided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure can be better understood by referring to thefollowing figures. The components in the figures are not necessarily toscale, emphasis instead being placed upon illustrating the principles ofthe disclosure. In the figures, reference numerals designatecorresponding parts throughout the different views.

FIG. 1 shows a wireless power transmission system architecture diagram,according an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a shows a wireless power transmission network diagram,according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a general status report generation, accordingto an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a past status report generation, according toan exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a present status report generation, accordingto an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a future status report generation, according toan exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure is here described in detail with reference toembodiments illustrated in the drawings, which form a part here. Otherembodiments may be used and/or other changes may be made withoutdeparting from the spirit or scope of the present disclosure. Theillustrative embodiments described in the detailed description are notmeant to be limiting of the subject matter presented here.

Definitions

As used here, the following terms may have the following definitions:

“Pairing” refers to the association of a single electronic device with asingle power receiver.

Pocket-forming” may refer to generating two or more RF waves whichconverge in 3-d space, forming controlled constructive and destructiveinterference patterns.

“Pockets of energy” may refer to areas or regions of space where energyor power may accumulate in the form of constructive interferencepatterns of RF waves.

“Null-space” may refer to areas or regions of space where pockets ofenergy do not form because of destructive interference patterns of RFwaves.

“Transmitter” may refer to a device, including a chip which may generatetwo or more RF signals, at least one RF signal being phase shifted andgain adjusted with respect to other RF signals, substantially all ofwhich pass through one or more RF antenna such that focused RF signalsare directed to a target.

“Receiver” may refer to a device which may include at least one antenna,at least one rectifying circuit and at least one power converter forpowering or charging an electronic device, using RF waves.

“wireless power transmission” may refer to transmitting energywirelessly.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The various exemplary embodiments presented here describe systems andmethods for communication between wireless power transmission systemsand remote management systems. The disclosed systems may include powertransmitters, power receivers, electronic devices and suitable remotesystem managers.

FIG. 1 shows a wireless power system architecture 100, according to anexemplary embodiment. System architecture 100 may include one or morewireless power transmitters 102, and one or more wireless powerreceivers 104. In some embodiments, wireless power system architecture100 may include one or more electronic devices 106, where electronicdevices 106 may not have a built-in wireless power receiver 104. Inother embodiments, wireless power system architecture 100 may includeelectronic devices 108 with a built-in power receiver 104.

Power transmitters 102 may transmit controlled Radio Frequency (RF)waves which may converge in 3-D space. These RF waves may be controlledthrough phase and/or relative amplitude adjustments to form constructiveand destructive interference patterns (pocket-forming). Pockets ofenergy may form at constructive interference patterns that may be3-dimensional in shape whereas null-spaces may be generated atdestructive interference patterns.

According to exemplary embodiments, power transmitters 102 may include apower transmitter manager application 110, a third party Bluetooth LowEnergy (BTLE) API 112, a BTLE chip 114, an antenna manager software 116and an antenna array 118 among other components. Power transmittermanager application 110 may be an executable program loaded into anon-volatile memory within a power transmitter 102. Power transmittermanager application 110 may control the behavior of power transmitter102, monitor the state of charge of electronic devices 106, electronicdevices 108 and power receivers 104, may keep track of the location ofpower receivers 104 and may execute power schedules, amongst others. Insome embodiments, power transmitters 102 may include a distributedwireless power transmission system database (not shown in figure) forstoring information related to power receivers 104, electronic devices106, power status, power schedules, IDs, pairing and any suitableinformation necessary for running the system.

Third party BTLE API 112 may enable the effective interaction betweenpower transmitter manager application 110 and BTLE chip 114. Antennamanager software 116 may process orders from power transmitter managerapplication 110 and may control power and direction angle of antennaarray 118.

Antenna arrays 118 that may be included in power transmitters 102 mayinclude a number of antenna elements capable of transmitting power. Insome embodiments, antenna array 118 may include from up to 512 antennaelements which may be distributed in an equally spaced grid. In oneembodiment, antenna array 118 may have an 8×8 grid to have a total of 64antenna elements. In another embodiment, antenna array 118 may have a16×16 grid to have a total of 256 antenna elements. In anotherembodiment, antenna array 118 may have a total of 512 antenna elements.However, the number of antenna elements may vary in relation with thedesired range and power transmission capacity of power transmitter 102.Generally, with more antenna elements, a wider range and higher powertransmission capacity may be achieved. Alternate configurations may alsobe possible including circular patterns or polygon arrangements, amongstothers.

The antenna elements of antenna array 118 may include suitable antennatypes for operating in frequency bands such as 900 MHz, 2.5 GHz, 5.250GHz, or 5.8 GHz, antenna elements may operate in independentfrequencies, allowing a multichannel operation of pocket-forming.

Power transmitter 102 may additionally include other suitablecommunications methods such as Wi-Fi, Zig bee and LAN amongst others.

Power receivers 104 may include a power receiver application 120, athird party BTLE API 112, a BTLE chip 114, and a power reception antennaarray 122. Power receivers 104 may be capable of utilizing pockets ofenergy produced by power transmitter 102 for charging or poweringelectronic devices 106 and electronic devices 108. Power receiverapplication 120 may be an executable program loaded into a non-volatilememory within a power receiver 104.

Third party BTLE API 112 may enable the effective interaction betweenpower receiver application 120 and BTLE chip 114. Antenna array 122 maybe capable of harvesting power from pockets of energy.

Electronic devices 106 and electronic devices 108 may include a GUI formanaging the wireless power system architecture 100. The GUI may beassociated with an executable program loaded into a non-volatile memory.In some embodiments, electronic devices 106 and electronic devices 108may include a distributed wireless power transmission system database(not shown in figure) for storing information related to power receivers104, power status, power schedules, IDs, pairing and any suitableinformation necessary for running the system.

In some embodiments, wireless power system architecture 100 may includemultiple power transmitters 102 and/or multiple power receivers 104 forcharging a plurality of electronic devices 106. In systems includingmultiple power transmitters 102, the two or more power transmitters maybe in constant communication using any suitable communication channelavailable, including Bluetooth, BTLE, Wi-Fi, Zig bee, LAN, LTE and LTEdirect amongst others.

FIG. 2 illustrates a wireless power transmission system network 200,according to an exemplary embodiment.

According to some embodiments, wireless power transmission systemnetwork 200 may include multiple wireless power transmission system 202capable of communicating with a remote management system 204 throughinternet cloud 206.

In some embodiments, wireless power transmission system 202 may includeone or more wireless power transmitters 208, one or more power receivers210, one or more back-up servers 212 and a local network 214.

According to some embodiments, each power transmitter 208 may include awireless power transmitter manager 216 and a distributed wireless powertransmission system database 218. Each power transmitter 208 may becapable of managing and transmitting power to one or more powerreceivers 210, where each power receiver 210 may be capable of chargingor providing power to one or more electronic devices 220.

Power transmitter managers 216 may control the behavior of powertransmitters 208, monitor the state of charge of electronic devices 220,and power receivers 210, may keep track of the location of powerreceivers 210 and may execute power schedules, run system check-ups andkeep track of the energy provided to each of the different electronicdevices 220, amongst others.

According to some embodiments, database 218 may store relevantinformation from electronic devices 220 such as, identifiers forelectronic devices 220, voltage ranges for electronic devices 220,location, signal strength and/or any relevant information fromelectronic devices 220. Database 218 may also store information relevantto the wireless power transmission system 202 such as, receiver ID's,transmitter ID's, end-user handheld device names ID's, system managementserver ID's, charging schedules, charging priorities and/or any datarelevant to a power transmission system network 200.

Additionally, in some embodiments, database 218 may store data of pastand present system status.

The past system status data may include details such as the amount ofpower delivered to an electronic device 220, the amount of energy thatwas transferred to a group of electronic devices 220 associated with auser, the amount of time an electronic device 220 has been associated toa wireless power transmitter 208, pairing records, activities within thesystem, any action or event of any wireless power device in the system,errors, faults, and configuration problems, among others. Past systemstatus data may also include power schedules, names, customer sign-innames, authorization and authentication credentials, encryptedinformation, physical areas of system operation, details for running thesystem, and any other suitable system or user-related information.

Present system status data stored in database 218 may include thelocations and/or movements in the system, configuration, pairing,errors, faults, alarms, problems, messages sent between the wirelesspower devices, and tracking information, among others.

According to some exemplary embodiments, databases 218 within powertransmitters 208 may further store future system status information,where the future status of the system may be forecasted or evaluatedaccording to historical data from past system status data and presentsystem status data.

In some embodiments, records from all device databases 218 in a wirelesspower transmission system 202 may also be stored and periodicallyupdated in server 212. In some embodiments, wireless power transmissionsystem network 200 may include two or more servers 212.

In another exemplary embodiment, wireless power transmitters 208 mayfurther be capable of detecting failures in the wireless powertransmission system 202. Examples of failures in power transmissionsystem 202 may include overheating of any component, malfunction, andoverload, among others. If a failure is detected by any of wirelesspower transmitters 208 within the system, then the failure may beanalyzed by any wireless power transmitter manager 216 in the system.After the analysis is completed, a recommendation or an alert may begenerated and reported to owner of the power transmission system or to aremote cloud-based information service, for distribution to system owneror manufacturer or supplier.

In some embodiments, power transmitters 208 may use network 214 to sendand receive information. Network 214 may be a local area network, or anysuitable communication system between the components of the wirelesspower transmission system 202. Network 214 may enable communicationbetween power transmitters, the communication of power transmitters withserver 212, and may facilitate the communication between powertransmission system 202 and remote management system 204, amongstothers.

According to some embodiments, network 214 may facilitate datacommunication between power transmission system 202 and remotemanagement system 204 through internet cloud 206.

Remote management system 204 may be operated by be owner of the system,the manufacturer or supplier of the system or a service provider. Remotemanagement system may include business cloud 222, remote manager 224 andbackend server 226, where the remote manager 224 may further include ageneral database 228. Functionality of backend server 226 and remotemanager 224 can be combined into a single physical or virtual server.

General database 228 may store additional backups of the informationstored in the device databases 218. Additionally, general database 228may store marketing information, customer billing, customerconfiguration, customer authentication, and customer supportinformation, among others. In some embodiments, general database 228 mayalso store information, such as less popular features, errors in thesystem, problems report, statistics, and quality control, among others.

Each wireless power transmitter 208 may periodically establish a TCPcommunication connection with remote manager 224 for authentication,problem report purposes or reporting of status or usage details, amongothers.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart of a general system status 300 reportgeneration process, according to an exemplary embodiment. Wireless powertransmission systems may periodically send status reports to a remotemanagement system, similar to the management systems previouslydescribed. General system status 300 report generation process may startwith past status report generation 302, in this step any server within awireless power transmission system may gather information that mayinclude details such as the amount of power delivered to each of theelectronic devices in the system during a certain time period, theamount of energy that was transferred to a group of electronic devicesassociated with a user, the amount of time an electronic device has beenassociated to a wireless power transmitter, pairing records, activitieswithin the system, any action or event of any wireless power device inthe system, errors, faults, and configuration problems, among others.Past system status data may also include power schedules, names,customer sign-in names, authorization and authentication credentials,encrypted information, areas, details for running the system, and anyother suitable system or user-related information.

Then, the server within the wireless power transmission system may run asystem check-up 304. In this step, the server within the wireless powertransmission system may check for any present failure, error or abnormalfunction of any system or subsystem components. Additionally, the serverwithin the wireless power transmission system may check and perform anevaluation of the current system configuration.

Afterwards, the system may generate present status report 306 and futurestatus report 308. Present status report may include any presentfailure, error or abnormal function of any system or subsystemcomponents; a list of presently online end-users and devices, currentsystem configuration and power schedules, amongst others.

Future status report 308 may include forecasts based on theextrapolation or evaluation of past and present system status reports.For example, the system may be able to extrapolate possible impendingsub-system component failure based on logged past behavior of sub-systemcomponents. The system may also be able to evaluate the power schedulesand determine if any device will be out of energy according tohistorical power consumption and current power schedule.

In some embodiments, the system may further evaluate the systemconfiguration to check if any configuration set by an operator orend-user may cause an unwanted system behavior. Such will be reportedusing the same techniques described above.

Then, the wireless power transmitters may evaluate 310 if an alert isneeded. If an alert is needed, the alert may be immediately generatedand sent 312. Depending of the type of problem detected, the alerts maybe sent to the end-users, the system's owner, the service provider orany suitable combination, or to a remote system manager which candistribute a description of this urgent situation to customer service orother personnel via email, text message, or synthesized voice telephonecall, according to alert configuration records stored within generaldatabase.

After the alert has been sent or if there is no alert needed, the serverwithin the wireless power transmission system executing the reportgeneration algorithm described in FIG. 3 may update 314 its databasewith the reports and optionally back them up in a suitable server. Ifthere are multiple servers, then only one at a time will be active forthe generation of reports, while the others remain in stand-by mode, totake over if the active server goes offline. A hierarchy of prioritywill determine which online server is the present active (master)server.

Then, using a suitable TCP/IP connection the reports may be sent 316 toa remote system manager for further evaluation. In some embodiments, thesystem may receive 318 feedback from the remote system manager toindicate verification and storage of any received information.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a past status report 400 generation process,according to an exemplary embodiment. The process for generation of apast status report 400 may start with the generation 402 of anon-end-user report, where non-end-user report may include loggedactivity, commands and configuration inputs of any non-end-user systemoperator.

Then, the system may generate 404 a logged usage report which mayinclude logged usage details and wireless energy consumption details.The wireless energy consumption details may include the amount of powerdelivered to each device and total amount of power delivered to thedevices associated with each end user.

In some embodiments, the logged usage report may be used to computepower bills to charge end-users for the amount of wireless powerreceived during a given time period.

Then, the system may generate 406 an automatic actions report which mayinclude automatic actions performed by or over any of the systemcomponents, including all power transmitters, power receivers, and anysystem management GUI.

Subsequently, the system may generate 408 a location and movementreport, which may include the location and movement tracking details ofpower receivers relative to power transmitters in the system.

After the reports have been generated the system may assemble paststatus report 400 and update 410 the database.

Then, using a suitable TCP/IP connection the reports may be sent 412 toa remote system manager for further evaluation. In some embodiments, thesystem may receive 414 feedback from the remote system manager toindicate verification and storage of any received information.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a present status report 500 generation process,according to an exemplary embodiment. The process of generation ofpresent status reports 500 may start with the generation 502 of a systemfunctioning report, in which the system may evaluate the performance ofeach of the systems components to detect any failure, error or abnormalfunction of any system or subsystem component. Then the system maygenerate 504 a list of all online users and devices. Afterwards, thesystem may generate 506 a report of the current system configuration.

Additionally, the system may check 508 the state of charge all theelectronic devices within the system. If any electronic device withinthe system is in urgent need 510 of charge the system may generate andsend 512 an alert. The alert may be sent to the users in form of textmessages, emails, voice synthesis telephone communication or any othersuitable means.

In some embodiments, whenever an electronic device has a minimum amountof energy left the system may be capable of contacting the end-user tomake the end user aware of the current state of charge of the electronicdevice.

After the reports have been generated the system may assemble presentstatus report 500 and update 514 the database.

Then, using a suitable TCP/IP connection the reports may be sent 516 toa remote system manager for further evaluation. In some embodiments, thesystem may receive 518 feedback from the remote system manager toindicate verification and storage of any received information.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a future status report 600 generation process,according to an exemplary embodiment. The process of generation offuture status report 600 may start with the generation 602 of acomponent failure forecast in which impending sub-system componentfailure may be extrapolated from logged past behavior of sub-systemcomponents. Then the system may generate 604 a device state of chargeforecast, based on present rate of energy consumption of the devices,configured charging schedule, logged usage and any other suitableparameter. In this step the system may determine if any device willreach an unexpected critically low level of charge at some point in thefuture.

Afterwards, the system may perform 606 a system configuration analysis,in which the system may evaluate any configuration set by the systemoperator or end-user to determine if it may cause any unwanted systembehavior.

Then, if a problem was found 608 in any of the first 3 steps, the systemmay generate a suitable alert 610. If an alert is sent to an end-user orsystem operator it may be in the form of text messages, emails, voicesynthesis telephone communication or any other suitable means. In someembodiments, the system provider may be contacted by similar means.

Afterwards, the system may assemble future status report 600 and update612 the database.

Subsequently, using a suitable TCP/IP connection the reports may be sent614 to a remote system manager for further evaluation. In someembodiments, the system may receive 618 feedback from the remote systemmanager to indicate verification and storage of any receivedinformation.

EXAMPLES

In example #1 a wireless power transmission system generates a generalstatus report as described in FIG. 3. When checking the state of chargeof the electronic devices within the system, an electronic device withcritically low level of charge and no scheduled charge time isidentified. In this example, the wireless power system is able tocontact the owner of the electronic device via SMS message. The userschedules a charging period for the device and the device is chargedbefore it runs out of energy.

In example #2 a wireless power transmission system generates a generalstatus report as described in FIG. 3. When checking the systemconfiguration a possible unwanted behavior is identified. A device isscheduled to charge for too long without usage, which may causeoverheating of some components. In this example, the power transmittersend a report to the remote management system and the remote managementsystem sends an alert via email to the user.

In example #3 a wireless power service provider utilizes the past statusreports generated by wireless power delivery system over the past 30days to compute bills and charge end-users for their wireless powerconsumption.

In example #4 an end-user's electronic device requests wireless power.The wireless power transmitter utilizes a suitable TCP/IP connection tocommunicate with a remote system manager and authenticate the end-userscredentials. The credentials of the end-user are authenticated and theelectronic device is charged.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed, other aspectsand embodiments are contemplated. The various aspects and embodimentsdisclosed are for purposes of illustration and are not intended to belimiting, with the true scope and spirit being indicated by thefollowing claims.

The foregoing method descriptions and the interface configuration areprovided merely as illustrative examples and are not intended to requireor imply that the steps of the various embodiments must be performed inthe order presented. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the artthe steps in the foregoing embodiments may be performed in any order.Words such as “then,” “next,” etc. are not intended to limit the orderof the steps; these words are simply used to guide the reader throughthe description of the methods. Although process flow diagrams maydescribe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operationscan be performed in parallel or concurrently. In addition, the order ofthe operations may be re-arranged. A process may correspond to a method,a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, etc. When a processcorresponds to a function, its termination may correspond to a return ofthe function to the calling function or the main function.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, andalgorithm steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosedhere may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, orcombinations of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability ofhardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules,circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms oftheir functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented ashardware or software depends upon the particular application and designconstraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans mayimplement the described functionality in varying ways for eachparticular application, but such implementation decisions should not beinterpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the presentinvention.

Embodiments implemented in computer software may be implemented insoftware, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware descriptionlanguages, or any combination thereof. A code segment ormachine-executable instructions may represent a procedure, a function, asubprogram, a program, a routine, a subroutine, a module, a softwarepackage, a class, or any combination of instructions, data structures,or program statements. A code segment may be coupled to another codesegment or a hardware circuit by passing and/or receiving information,data, arguments, parameters, or memory contents. Information, arguments,parameters, data, etc. may be passed, forwarded, or transmitted via anysuitable means including memory sharing, message passing, token passing,network transmission, etc.

The actual software code or specialized control hardware used toimplement these systems and methods is not limiting of the invention.Thus, the operation and behavior of the systems and methods weredescribed without reference to the specific software code beingunderstood that software and control hardware can be designed toimplement the systems and methods based on the description here.

When implemented in software, the functions may be stored as one or moreinstructions or code on a non-transitory computer-readable orprocessor-readable storage medium. The steps of a method or algorithmdisclosed here may be embodied in a processor-executable software modulewhich may reside on a computer-readable or processor-readable storagemedium. A non-transitory computer-readable or processor-readable mediaincludes both computer storage media and tangible storage media thatfacilitate transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Anon-transitory processor-readable storage media may be any availablemedia that may be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and notlimitation, such non-transitory processor-readable media may compriseRAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic diskstorage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other tangible storagemedium that may be used to store desired program code in the form ofinstructions or data structures and that may be accessed by a computeror processor. Disk and disc, as used here, include compact disc (CD),laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, andBlu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, whilediscs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the aboveshould also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.Additionally, the operations of a method or algorithm may reside as oneor any combination or set of codes and/or instructions on anon-transitory processor-readable medium and/or computer-readablemedium, which may be incorporated into a computer program product.

The preceding description of the disclosed embodiments is provided toenable any person skilled in the art to make or use the presentinvention. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readilyapparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles definedhere may be applied to other embodiments without departing from thespirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is notintended to be limited to the embodiments shown here but is to beaccorded the widest scope consistent with the following claims and theprinciples and novel features disclosed here.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A system, comprising: a plurality oftransmitters, a respective transmitter of the plurality of transmitterscomprising an antenna array and one or more communications components,wherein: the antenna array of the respective transmitter is configuredto transmit radio frequency (RF) waves that are transmitted so that theyconstructively interfere and provide pocket-forming energy in proximityto a respective receiver in a set of respective receivers coupled torespective electronic devices, the one or more communications componentsof the respective transmitter is configured to: receive device data fromeach receiver in the set of receivers, the device data comprising datathat indicates at least respective charge levels for the respectiveelectronic devices coupled to the respective receivers, and communicatetransmitter data associated with the respective transmitter and devicedata received by the respective transmitter to a respective power serverof a plurality of power servers via a first network; the plurality ofpower servers, the respective power server coupled via the first networkto a set of one or more transmitters of the plurality of transmittersand coupled via a second network to a remote server, and configured to:receive device data and transmitter data from the respective transmitterin the set of one or more transmitters, generate, based on (i) thereceived device data that indicates respective charge levels for therespective electronic devices and (ii) the received transmitter datafrom the respective transmitter, a charging schedule for the respectivetransmitter that specifies when and to which respective receiversadditional RF waves should be transmitted, wherein the respectivetransmitter controls transmission of the additional RF waves so thatthey constructively interfere in proximity to respective receivers inaccordance with the charging schedule; communicate the received data andthe generated charging schedule to the remote server; and the remoteserver, operatively coupled to each respective power server in theplurality of power servers via each second network for each respectivepower server, wherein the remote server is configured to processcommunicated data to determine a status report for the system.
 2. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the status report includes information thatis selected from the group consisting of: a past system status, apresent system status, a future system status, a device failure status,and a transmitter failure status.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein thepast system status comprises at least one of a non-end-user report, alogged usage report, an automatic actions report and a location andmovement report; the present system status comprises at least one of asystem functioning report, an online users report, a systemconfiguration report and a state of charge report; and the future systemstatus comprises at least one of component failure forecast data, devicestate of change forecast data and system configuration analysis data. 4.The system of claim 1, wherein the respective transmitter comprises anantenna manager configured to control power and direction angle of RFwaves transmitted by the antenna array.
 5. The system of claim 1,wherein the device data also comprises data selected from the groupconsisting of: device identification data, device voltage range data,device location data, and device signal strength data.
 6. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the transmitter data comprises data of a type selectedfrom the group consisting of: transmitter identification data, receiveridentification data, end-user device name data, system management serveridentification data, charging schedule data and charging priority data.7. The system of claim 1, wherein: the remote server is furtherconfigured to generate and send one or more alerts to an appropriateuser in response to detecting a type of problem indicated in the statusreport for the system, and the appropriate user is determined based onthe type of problem.
 8. A method for monitoring a wireless power system,comprising: receiving, by a communications component of a transmittercoupled via a network to a power server, from a receiver of a set ofreceivers associated with the transmitter, device data associated withan electronic device coupled to the receiver, the device data comprisingdata that indicates at least a charge level for the electronic devicecoupled to the receiver; transmitting, by the transmitter, the devicedata and transmitter data to the power server, the device data and thetransmitter data indicating one or more status of the wireless powersystem; receiving, by the transmitter and from the power server, acharging schedule that specifies when and to which receivers of the setof receivers RF waves should be transmitted, wherein the power servergenerates the charging schedule based on (i) the device data thatindicates the charge level for the electronic device and (ii) thetransmitter data; transmitting, by an antenna array of the transmitter,RF waves that are controlled by the transmitter so that the RF wavesconstructively interfere in proximity to the receiver, according to thecharging schedule, wherein the power server sends the device data, thetransmitter data, and the generated charging schedule to a remote serverthat is coupled to the power server via a second network, and the remoteserver processes the data to determine a status report for the wirelesspower system.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the status reportincludes information that is selected from the group consisting of: apast system status, a present system status, a future system status, adevice failure status, and a transmitter failure status.
 10. The methodof claim 9, wherein the past system status comprises at least one of anon-end-user report, a logged usage report, an automatic actions reportand a location and movement report; the present system status comprisesat least one of a system functioning report, an online users report, asystem configuration report and a state of charge report; and the futuresystem status comprises at least one of component failure forecast data,device state of change forecast data and system configuration analysisdata.
 11. The method of claim 8, further comprising controlling powerand direction angle of the RF waves transmitted by the antenna array viaan antenna manager of the transmitter.
 12. The method of claim 8,wherein the device data also comprises data selected from the groupconsisting of: device identification data, device voltage range data,device location data, and device signal strength data.
 13. The method ofclaim 8, wherein the transmitter data comprises data of a type selectedfrom the group consisting of: transmitter identification data, receiveridentification data, end-user device name data, system management serveridentification data, charging schedule data, and charging priority data.14. The method of claim 8, wherein the remote server also generates andsends one or more alerts to an appropriate user in response to detectinga type of problem indicated in the status report for the system, andwherein the appropriate user is determined based on the type of problem.